It has been said that all love begins and ends with she who gave us life. A thousand years ago, my mother turned us into monsters, yet still she claimed to love us even as she vowed to destroy us. The noble Elijah, tormented by long buried shameful secrets. Kol, the wily troublemaker out for no one but himself. Finn, the devoted acolyte, his love all too easily warped by our mother's sick hate. Fierce Rebekah, willing to risk everything on the chance that she might one day find happiness. And me, the bastard child, my mother's greatest shame. Now finally we have defeated her, giving her the choice she never thought to give us: to live on as one of the monsters she created, or suffer an agonizing death she so deserves.

InThe Mikaelson Family is a family whose line dates back at least to the then Kingdom of Norway in the late 10th century with Mikael and Esther, a wealthy landowner and Viking and a witch, respectively. At the end of the 10th century/beginning of the 11th century, the family was mortal until the loss of Esther and Mikael's youngest child, Henrik to a werewolf attack spurred them to use Esther's magic to turn Mikael and the rest of their living children into the world's first vampires, from whom all vampires are descended. The Original vampires are known as the most powerful supernatural beings in the world, but the Mikaelson family is also known for having members who are witches and hybrids as well.

Contents

History

"In the beginning, our family was human, A thousand years ago, now. Although our mother dabbled in the dark arts, we were actually just a family trying to survive in a time when it was quite difficult to do so. And, for better or worse, we were happy.That is, however, until one night, our youngest brother was killed by our village's greatest threat. Men that could transform themselves into wolves during the full moon. Our family was devastated, none more than Niklaus. Desperate to protect the rest of us, our father forced our mother to call upon her black magic in order to make us stronger.Thus, the first vampires were born. But with this speed, this strength, this immortality, came a terrible hunger. No one felt this hunger more than Niklaus."

The first members of this family were a man named Mikael and his wife Esther. Esther longed for a family, though after over a year of marriage, she found herself barren. She went to her sister, Dahlia, and begged her to use her magic to grant Esther the ability to have children. Dahlia granted this request, but made it clear that the magic had a price, and it was a price that Esther was forced to pay years later-- her payment to her sister would be her first-born child, and the first-born of her children's children, and their children's children, for as long as Esther's line shall live. She then ordered Esther to pretend that her first-born, Freya, had died of a plague, so that Mikael would never know what truly had happened to his daughter when he returned from battle. Afterward, Esther and Mikael heard from a witch called Ayana, Esther's best friend and mentor, that there was a land where everyone was healthy and strong, a land that ended up being the New World, specifically what is now modern-day Mystic Falls. Mikael and Esther with Freya's surviving brother, Finn, and their recently born son Elijah traveled to this paradise with Ayana, where they settled into a village full of the healthy people they had learned about, who were revealed to be werewolves, and lived peacefully for years. In the years to follow, Esther bore four more children: Niklaus, Kol, Rebekah, and Henrik. Mikael often clashed with his middle son, Niklaus, with whom he had an antagonistic and abusive relationship which only became worse when Klaus and Henrik snuck out to watch the werewolves transform one night, where Henrik was accidentally mauled and killed.

Grief-stricken, Mikael decided to search for a way to protect his family from the werewolves. Though their family friend Ayana refused to help him in fear of upsetting the balance of nature, Mikael soon found another witch who would help him – his wife, Esther. Somehow, they were able to learn of the immortality spell created by Qetsiyah a thousand years previously, and adapted the spell in order to give their children abilities of superhuman strength, speed, agility and healing that would be even stronger than those of the werewolves. Esther drew on mystic symbols in order to fuel her spell; she called upon the Sun for life, and the white oak tree, long known for being one of the earth's eternal objects, for immortality, so that she and Mikael would never again have to suffer the grief of losing a child. In order to complete the ritual, Mikael had his children drink wine laced with the blood of Tatia, a Petrova doppelgänger and distant descendant of the world's first immortal woman, Amara, before he then thrust his sword through their chests. They awoke in transition, and on their father’s orders, drank human blood from a village girl in order to complete their transformation into the Original vampires. Unfortunately for them, there were consequences for this transformation, and Nature sought to try to restore the balance they upset by giving them a weakness for every new strength they had gained.

The sun that gave them life burned them, their thirst for human blood was insatiable, and their neighbors could close their homes to them by not inviting them inside. Vervain flowers, which grew at the base of the white oak tree, burned them and protected against compulsion. Finally, the white oak tree, which gave them immortality, was also the one substance on earth that could actually destroy them for good. In the end, they burned the tree down to ensure their own survival, though the ashes were later saved to later be used against them. When Klaus made his first kill after being turned into a vampire, it triggered his werewolf gene, which ultimately revealed the truth of his true parentage to his family-- Klaus was not Mikael's son, but was instead the son of the chief of their village's werewolf clan, with whom Esther had an affair. Once Mikael learned of Esther's infidelity and realized that her lover's pack were the werewolves who had killed Henrik, Mikael hunted down and killed Klaus's father and his entire family, igniting a war between vampires and werewolves that still exists to this day. Soon after the Mikaelsons were turned into vampires and learned of Klaus' werewolf heritage, Esther was obligated to curse Klaus in order to make his werewolf nature dormant so that he would not upset nature further by possessing so much power. However, Klaus felt betrayed by this punishment, and in retaliation, Klaus murdered his mother and framed Mikael for the act.

Original vampires can only be neutralized by taking a special silver dagger enchanted by the Witch of the Brotherhood of the Five that is dipped in the ash remains of the original white oak tree and driving it through their hearts. However, Klaus is a hybrid, and since silver daggers do not affect him (because werewolves heal when wounded by silver), the only way to kill Klaus is with a stake carved from the white oak tree. Mikael had carved one before the tree was burned down, which caused Klaus to fear him during the centuries that he was active. A new one was created by Damon Salvatore, from parts of the Wickery Bridge which came from the saplings of the original tree. This stake was then stolen by the recently-resurrected Esther and Alaric Saltzman'sdark alter-ego in 2010, the former of whom melted down Alaric's Gilbert ring to make the stake indestructible and prevent it from being burned up after an Original was staked with it.

After Esther's death at Klaus' hands in the 11th century, Elijah and Rebekah swore to stick with Niklaus"always and forever." However, over the centuries, Klaus started using the silver daggers he stole from the Five to neutralize his siblings whenever they interfered with his life or plans. Finn was the first to be daggered in the 1100s, and was left neutralized for nine hundred years, while Kol was daggered on multiple occasions and for various lengths of time, including in 1701, in 1821, and again in 1914. Rebekah also had a similar fate to Kol, and was also daggered on various occasions, including in 1835, 1922, and 2010. When his siblings were daggered, he dragged them around in coffins, which he never kept far from wherever he was living. However, for many centuries, Elijah was the only sibling to escape his wrath, and Klaus led Elijah to believe that he had dropped their incapacitated siblings deep in the ocean where they could never be found. For this betrayal, Elijah swore revenge on his brother.

Over the years, legend began to surround the Original vampires as their story became lost to history: all vampires knew that they were descended from a first generation of vampires, but they knew next to nothing about them. Only one was actually known at all: Klaus. He was believed, mistakenly, to be the oldest vampire in the world to the few vampires who knew of him, and while many vampires knew of Elijah, he was mistakenly assumed to be a "foot-soldier" or minion of Klaus' and wasn't revealed to be an Original vampire to most, nor was he known to be Klaus' half-brother. Elijah was however serving his own interests: namely, Klaus' destruction in recompense for his lost family. Mikael was also not anonymous in history, but no one knew he was an Original vampire, either, nor did they know his true goal was to slay his step-son Klaus-- he was instead infamously known as Mikael the Destroyer, the ancient vampire who hunted vampires. It is unknown if the other Mikaelsons had a famous/infamous history, but vampires did know there were other Original vampires besides Klaus. However, it was Elijah who revealed to the Mystic Falls Gang that the other Original vampires were his siblings. "Oh Klaus is not my only brother, I had siblings I had a family, once. Klaus hunted them down, one by one and he took them from me."

Between mid-late 2010 and early 2011, three of the Mikaelson family members were killed in Mystic Falls; first, Mikael was killed by Klaus in Homecoming, while Finn was killed by Matt Donovan in The Murder of One. It was the latter's death that revealed to many that when an Original vampire is killed, every vampire in their bloodline (ie: any vampire they have ever sired) dies along with them, as evidenced by Sage and Troy dying just an hour or so after Finn was killed. Months later, Kol was killed by Jeremy Gilbert in order to finish his Hunter's Mark, as his death would result in the deaths of thousands of vampires who were sired by him.

As of 2011, the Mikaelson family resides in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, where Klaus inadvertently started his own family when it was revealed that his Original hybrid nature (being born a werewolf and turned into a vampire by magic) allowed him to father a child with the werewolf Hayley Marshall during a one-night stand. The Klaus and Hayley reunited in the city after he and Elijah returned there for the first time in over a century to investigate a claim of a potential threat from a witch named Jane-Anne Deveraux. They were soon joined by Rebekah and began to regain control over the city they had worked to build in the 18th century, with Klaus eventually taking leadership from his surrogate son Marcel Gerard. After an intense war between the five supernatural factions of the city, the Guerrera werewolves, who had been living undercover as humans for decades and who had allied with the New Orleans Coven of witches, staged a coup against the Originals and the vampires and seized control over the city. Part of the Guerrera's alliance with the witches involved handing over the pregnant Hayley so that they could sacrifice Hayley and Klaus' baby daughter to gain more power for the coven. Fortunately, the child was rescued by her parents, uncle, and surrogate brother, but was ultimately sent away to live with Rebekah after they faked her death to ensure that she would no longer be pursued by their enemies. While Klaus, Elijah, and Hayley work together to regain control over the Quarter once again, they are forced to fight against their newly-resurrected father in his fight to kill Klaus, as well as their mother and brothers Kol and Finn, all of whom have returned to life by possessing the bodies of witches and who plan to get the three to rejoin their family in mortal bodies.

Family Members

Mikael- Mikael is an Original vampire who was once a Viking and a wealthy landowner in Norway. He is the patriarch of the Mikaelson family, and is the father of Freya, Finn, Elijah, Kol, Rebekah and Henrik and the step-father of Niklaus. He was in his late 40's to early 50's when he was turned into a vampire, and was seen to be strong, controlling, domineering, strict, and authoritarian in nature, qualities that were only magnified upon his transition. After moving to the New World, his wife bore more children, and his family was quite close, though he and Klaus didn't get along well at all, due to the fact that Klaus was the product of an affair with the Alpha of the werewolf clan in their village. His wife had been unfaithful many years before and when he found out about her affair, he hunted down and killed Klaus's father and his entire family, not realizing that he was igniting a war between species that rages to this day between the vampires and the werewolves. Mikael was the one who asked his wife Esther, a powerful witch, to turn the family into vampires. In The Vampire Diaries episode Homecoming, he was killed by Klaus with the only weapon that could be used to kill or destroy an Original Vampire, the White Oak Stake, after centuries of hunting Klaus down with the intent to kill him. However, in The Originals episode From a Cradle to a Grave, he was resurrected by Davina Claire in hope that they could work together to kill Klaus. While he was under Davina's control using the Bracelet of Obedience, he was able to break free with his son Kol's help and is now living of his own free will.

Esther Mikaelson- Esther is the Original Witch (or, rather, the witch of the Original family), who was married to a wealthy landowner from Norway, Mikael. She is the mother of Freya, Finn, Elijah, Niklaus, Kol, Rebekah, and Henrik. She was in her mid to late 40's when she was killed, and was beautiful, strong, powerful and fierce, like a lioness protecting her cubs. Esther was the one who turned her family into vampires by using a modified version of the immortality spell that involved drawing on the the sun and the white oak tree. She was also the witch who placed the Hybrid Curse on Niklaus. It is assumed that Klaus strangled her to death after she cursed him, but it was later revealed in Bringing Out The Deadthat Esther's body was preserved by Ayana and kept in one of Klaus' coffins. She was later brought back to life by Abby and Bonnie Bennett in Season Three, and pretended as though she wanted to reunite her family, when in reality, she was actually plotting their deaths, as she believed vampires to be an abomination to nature that needed to be ridden from the earth. She was killed by Alaric Saltzman in Do Not Go Gentle; however, in The Originals episode Apres Moi, Le Deluge, her remains were consecrated by an Elder of the New Orleans Coven so that she and her living descendants would be New Orleans' witches and able to share in the coven's ancestral magic. Because of this connection, Esther and her deceased sons Finn and Kol were able to join the witch ancestors, and eventually returned as spirits to the living world so they could possess living witches in order to fulfill their plans. Esther first possessed the young Harvest witch Cassie, but jumped into another witch, Lenore, when it became convenient for her. However, the Mikaelson children (via Rebekah's quick thinking) were able to turn Esther/Lenore into a vampire in order to keep her from body-jumping and being able to practice magic against them.

Freya Mikaelson - Freya was Mikael and Esther's first born child, the oldest sister of Finn, Elijah, Kol, Rebekah and Henrik, and the half-sister of Niklaus. It was said that the oldest Original sibling had died in the Old World (specifically Norway) because of the plague. However, it was later revealed in Wheel Inside the Wheel that Esther made a deal with her sister, a witch named Dahlia, in order to magically give her the ability to have children. However, Dahlia required that Esther give her a payment for this magic-- Esther must give Dahlia her first-born child Freya, as well as each of her children's first-borns and every subsequent first-born as long as her line shall live. In order to cover up what had really happened, Dahlia demanded that Esther lie to Mikael when he returned from battle and say that Freya perished from the plague. The death of their firstborn caused Esther and Mikael, along with Freya's brother Finn and their newest baby Elijah to move themselves to a "mystical land" where a witch told them the inhabitants had the gift of perfect health, increased strength and speed. Years later, Henrik, the youngest of the family, died when he and the curious Klaus went out to watch the villagers transform into werewolves and was attacked, reminding Mikael, Esther and Finn of the loss of Freya and motivating them to turn the family into vampires to ensure they would never feel the pain of losing a child again. It was revealed that Freya is alive trapped in a coffin in the attic at Dowager Fauline's mansion, along with her sister Rebekah. Later, Freya and Rebekah left the asylum after Freya save Rebekah and kill most of The Kindred, especially Cassie.

Finn Mikaelson- Finn is the second child born of Mikael and Esther, the younger brother of Freya, and the oldest brother of Elijah, Kol, Rebekah and Henrik, and the half-brother of Niklaus. Finn was in his late 20s-early 30's when he was turned, and was handsome, tall and physically imposing. Quiet, calm, even tempered and introverted, but ashamed of what he and his siblings became, he was one of the most moral of the Originals, along with Elijah, and was prone to self-hatred of his vampire existence. Before Finn was undaggered, Elijah stated that Finn had been neutralized for over nine hundred years. Elijah later removed the dagger from his body in the episode Bringing Out The Dead, allowing Finn to experience how much the world had changed in the time he was incapacitated. Before being daggered, Finn had fallen deeply in love with a woman in his village named Sage, and he later turned Sage into a vampire despite his distaste for his own species. Finn was killed by Matt Donovan with a white oak stake after the Mystic Falls Gang plotted to kill the Originals while they were still magically linked together. It was revealed in The Originals episode Rebirth that Finn was "resurrected" when his mother magically placed his spirit into the body of a witch named Vincent.

Elijah Mikaelson- Elijah is the third-born child of Mikael and Esther, the younger brother of Freya and Finn, the elder brother of Kol, Rebekah and Henrik, and the elder half-brother of Niklaus. Elijah is described to be noble, honorable, moral and compassionate, qualities that were only amplified when he was turned into a vampire. Although he loved his younger brother, Niklaus dearly, he became vengeful when he was led to believe that Klaus had hunted down and daggered his siblings before tossing them into the ocean to never be found agin. Unfortunately, John Gilbert came to Mystic Falls with the white oak ash and the dagger and Elijah was neutralized by Elena, though she later removed the dagger from his body. Elijah returned to fight against Klaus upon being awakened, though when he was about to kill Klaus, he was turned back to his side at the last moment when Klaus admitted that he hadn't thrown their siblings into the ocean like he had claimed. Elijah, believing Klaus to be sincere, decided not to kill him after all, but he was ultimately rewarded for his change of heart by Klaus daggering him once again in As I Lay Dying to ensure he wouldn't interfere with his plan to create more hybrids. Elijah currently resides in the Mikaelson compound in New Orleans with his brother Klaus and the mother of his niece, Hayley.

Niklaus Mikaelson- Niklaus (known to most as Klaus, and to his siblings as Nik) is the fourth child born to Esther and a werewolf named Ansel, the step-son of Mikael, the younger half-brother of Freya Mikaelson, Finn and Elijah, and the older half-brother of Kol, Rebekah and Henrik. He is an Original vampire/werewolf hybrid, the first and only werewolf to be turned into a hybrid by magic rather than the blood of a hybrid, who is said to be the most hated and feared of all the Original vampires, as well as arguably the most powerful creature on earth. During his mortal life, Klaus was described as impulsive, reckless, careless, adventurous, and a risk-taker, a daredevil at heart, which was magnified upon being turned into a hybrid. He was so resolute to punish those who wronged him that he hunted Katherine Pierce, Rose, and Trevor for over 500 years in order to get revenge after they sabotaged his first attempt to break his curse. He spent much of his life seeking out the ingredients to break his curse, most important of which was the last human Petrova doppelgänger, Elena, whose blood was needed to break the spell sealed within the moonstone. Upon his introduction in The Vampire Diaries, Klaus used Alaric's body to educate himself on his new enemies in the Mystic Falls Gang. He succeeds in breaking the 1000 year old curse that held his dormant werewolf gene in check, which was the first step in returning to his true hybrid state and being able to sire more hybrids of his own. After many attempts to kill Klaus, Stefan and Damon succeeded in defeating him via a desiccation spell by Bonnie through Stefan when they were able to catch him off-guard. Alaric Saltzman (while under the influence of his dark alter-ego) attempted to kill Niklaus in the final episode of Season 3 by staking him with a white oak stake. However, Klaus's spirit was placed into Tyler Lockwood's body through a spell conducted by Bonnie Bennett prior to his being staked, and since Alaric closed his coffin and snuffed out the flames after he "killed" him, Klaus' body sustained minimal damage, allowing him to return to it after Alaric's death. Since moving to New Orleans, discovering he had fathered a child with Hayley Marshall, and regaining and losing his title as king of the city, Klaus has reconnected with his humanity and has been shown to be a much more kind, thoughtful, and merciful person. However, he still has no problem punishing those who seek to harm the family he has created with his siblings Elijah and Rebekah, his daughter's mother Hayley, his surrogate son Marcel, and his daughter Hope.

Kol Mikaelson- Kol is the fifth child born to Esther and the fourth child born to Mikael, the younger brother of Freya, Finn and Elijah, the younger half-brother of Niklaus, and the elder brother of Rebekah and Henrik. Kol was described as cocky, extroverted, charming, daring and outspoken. Very little is known about Kol's early history, but it has been revealed throughout The Originals that Kol was the only Mikaelson child to have tapped into his witch heritage prior to being turned into a vampire, and once he lost his powers, he traveled the world and studied as many forms of witchcraft as he could with various witch communities over his thousand years of life. He has also demonstrated what is often referred to as "middle-child-syndrome," where he seeks the attention of his family due to feeling as though he doesn't fit into the close relationship shared between Elijah, Klaus and Rebekah. In Homecoming, Stefan stole the coffin holding his body from Klaus, along with three other coffins that held Esther, Elijah and Finn. Kol was undaggered for the first time since 1914 by Elijah in Bringing Out The Dead. His personality was that of an immature, cocky, spoiled teenager, and demonstrated an attitude of believing himself better than humans because of his status as a Original vampire. While living in Mystic Falls, Kol was seen to constantly clash with Damon Salvatore; and the two have repeatedly tried to kill each other. Kol traveled to Denver, Colorado on Klaus' orders in order to pretend to befriend Jeremy Gilbert so he could be used as leverage against Elena. He returned to Mystic Falls in After School Special, and immediately jumped into helping Rebekah learn about the cure for immortality by kidnapping Atticus Shane. However, after he learned that the finding of the cure will raise the first immortal, Silas, whom he feared, he then tried to stop anyone from finding the cure; he first attempted this by trying to kill Shane, who had said he found the location of the cure. When that failed, he moved on to trying to prevent Jeremy from completing his Hunter's Mark by compelling Damon to kill Jeremy and attempting to kill Bonnie. In the end, he was killed by Jeremy with the white oak stake in A View to a Kill in order to complete his mark, as every vampire Kol sired in his millennia as a vampire would die along with him. It was revealed in Rebirth that Kol is alive and was not sucked into oblivion as he feared would happen, and instead was brought back by his mother and made to possess the body of a witch named Kaleb. In I Love You, Goodbye, Kol died because he was cursed by Finn. Klaus, Elijah, Davina and Rebekah were with him at his death.

Rebekah Mikaelson- Rebekah is the sixth child born to Esther and the fifth child born to Mikael, the younger sister of Freya, Finn, and Kol, the younger half-sister of Niklaus, and the older sister of Henrik. Rebekah is the only female Original vampire, and is described as being beautiful, carefree, adventurous, and free-spirited, though not without a temper. Rebekah is seen to have a very close, yet complicated relationship with her elder half-brother, Niklaus, and has a close, loving relationship with Elijah. Over the course of her life, she was daggered multiple times by Klaus, though only a few dates are known; the first time she was seen to be daggered was in 1835, when she was revealed to be in a relationship with Marcel despite Klaus' orders not to do so. She was awakened in 1887, and conspired with Marcel to bring Mikael to town to chase Klaus away in 1919. In 1922, she and her half-brother, Niklaus, ended up in Chicago after fleeing New Orleans, where she briefly met Stefan Salvatore during his decades-long "Ripper" period. Soon afterward, she fell deeply in love with him, but after her vampire-hunting father managed to track them down in Chicago, Klaus decided they needed to flee immediately. When Rebekah made it clear that she wanted to stay with Stefan, Klaus daggered her once again for going against his wishes, and she wasn't reawakened again until 2010. Rebekah, much like Klaus, started out as someone prone to being vindictive, spiteful, and vengeful, but over time she has grown and matured into a caring person who isn't prone to violence and killing unless she feels she must. Rebekah also has a tendency to love with all of her heart, and has had many love interests over the years, including Alexander of the FIve, the Governor of Louisiana's son Emil, Marcel, Stefan, and Matt Donovan, as well as brief dalliances with Tyler Lockwood and Damon Salvatore. When she heard her brother Klaus was killed, she was inconsolable, and took out her revenge on Alaric by standing in the middle of the road so that the truck Matt and Elena were driving would run off the bridge and kill Elena so that Alaric, who was linked to her life, would die too. Rebekah lived in New Orleans briefly with her brothers until she was banished by Klaus after he learned that she had summoned Mikael to chase him away from their city. However, upon the birth of Klaus and Hayley's daughter Hope, Klaus and Rebekah reconciled so that Hope (whose death had been faked in order to protect her from death at the hands of their enemies) could live with her until her family home was safe enough for her to live. Due to a mistake made when she and her brothers tried to take down Esther, Rebekah's spirit was transferred into the body of a yet-unknown witch who is currently trapped in the Dowager Fauline's mansion in The Map of Moments, along with her sister Freya. Later, Freya and Rebekah left the asylum after Freya save Rebekah and kill most of The Kindred, especially Cassie and Rebekah was reunited with her older sister.

Henrik Mikaelson- Henrik was the last and seventh born child of Mikael and Esther, the younger brother of Freya, Finn, Elijah, Kol and Rebekah and the younger half-brother of Niklaus. Henrik was the youngest sibling and child of the Original family. Henrik was killed after he and Klaus went to watch the men in the village transition from humans to werewolves. Because of this, Klaus during that time, had felt an extreme amount of guilt and responsibility for Henrik's death. Henrik's unexpected death caused Mikael to have the family turned into vampires, to prevent anymore of his children from dying.

Hope Mikaelson- This child was conceived by Klaus and Hayley during a one-night stand in the episode Bring It On. In the episode The Originals, the witch Sophie Deveraux said the child is one of nature's loopholes. It was revealed in Tangled Up In Blue that the baby is indeed a hybrid and the first of her kind It was also revealed that the baby is a girl. Hope was born in From a Cradle to a Grave and sent off to live with her aunt Rebekah so she would be safe after her parents faked her death. Hope is believed to be a werewolf-witch-vampire hybrid, and the first truly alive vampire/hybrid to exist.

Relatives

By Esther:

Dahlia-Esther's older sister who made it possible for her to have children after Esther realized she was barren. She claimed Freya and every subsequent first-born Mikaelson born from Esther's bloodline as long as it shall live as her payment for this complex magic, and promised to return and take all of Esther's children if Esther did not adhere to her arrangement.

By Niklaus and Hope Mikaelson:

Ansel - Esther's lover, who was the biological father of Klaus. He was a werewolf with whom Esther had an affair, and Klaus was the product of their love together.

Hayley Marshall (born Andréa Labonair) - Hayley is a werewolf who had a one-night stand with Klaus (Bring It On). It was revealed in The Originalsthat Hayley had become pregnant after their tryst with their daughter Hope Mikaelson. It was Hope's hybrid blood (which she got from her dad's heritage) that ultimately turned Hayley into a hybrid after Hope's birth and Hayley's subsequent murder, and because of this and her status as the mother of Klaus' child that she became an honorary member of the Mikaelson family.

Marcellus Gerard- Marcellus (commonly known as Marcel) is a child that Klaus adopted as his son in 1821. Marcel was a formerly unnamed slave and the secret illegitimate child of his master, the Governor of Louisiana , who was abused by the slavemasters until Klaus saved him and named him Marcellus, which means "little warrior." Klaus loved Marcel like a son, because Marcel reminded him of himself-- they were both unloved and abused by their fathers. Though his relationships with the members of the Mikaelson family have been strained over the years, he has begun to reconnect with them following the vampires' loss of control over the Quarter in 2012.

Surname

Other spellings of the name Mikaelson include Michaelson, Michelson, Mikelson, Michaelsen.

The name Mikael comes from the Hebrew מִיכָאֵל (Mikha'el), which translates as the question "Who is like God"?

The name Mikaelson is a patronymic surname, or a name constructed using the father's given name and a suffix indicating either "son" or "daughter". Strictly speaking, Rebekah would have taken the patronym Mikaelsdotter, or "Daughter of Mikael", in earlier times, but during the 19th century Scandinavian naming conventions began to evolve, such that families preferred to take a family name rather than a patronymic surname. Mikaelson is an example of a patronymic surname that was "frozen" to become an inherited family name. Iceland is one country where the practice of using patronymic surnames still exists, whereas inherited family names are now mandatory in other Scandinavian countries.

Trivia

Klaus, Davos, Celine, Solomon, Benevenuto, Alexander, Chihiro, Gunnar, Milimo, and Pachacuti are The Old Ones from the book series, though on the TV series, they are known as the Originals.

However, the Old Ones are different from the Original vampires, as the Old Ones are not only much older (Klaus had memories of being alive during the creation of the pyramids around 2700 B.C), but were also created by nature and were always vampires, while the Originals became vampires in the late 10th/early 11th century after first being mortal.

Rebekah says "No one in my family is to be trusted." These words are confirmed by the actions of Mikael, Esther, Finn, Elijah, Niklaus, Kol and Rebekah, all of whom have been seen to go back on their word or have used clever wordplay to create loopholes in their promises.

The members of the Mikaelson family all have either I or K in their name except Esther and Freya.

Mikael, Niklaus and Henrik all have I and K, the two oldest Original siblings Elijah and Finn both have I, and the two youngest Original siblings Kol and Rebekah both have K.

Coincidentally, all members of the Original family have a part to play in the making or the creation of vampires and vampirism.

If all of the Original vampires were to die, every vampire sired from their bloodline will die as well, effectively eradicating the vampire species.

It was once believed that an unknown child, the oldest and first born child of Mikael and Esther (assumed to be a son named Aaron) died due to a plague in the Old World. However, since then it has been confirmed that their first child was a daughter named Freya and was instead forcibly taken by Esther's sister Dahlia, and Esther lied that she died from the plague to her husband and children cover up what her sister did. Henrik, the youngest and last born child of Mikael and Esther, died in the New World.

It is possible that the Original vampires, excluding Mikael and Klaus, were witches before they became vampires.

This was mostly confirmed by Davina in Red Door, when Kol revealed to Davina that he was the only one of his siblings to tap into his magical heritage from this mother and begin practicing witchcraft before they were turned into vampires.

Elijah had assumed that Niklaus had buried his neutralized family at sea where he couldn't find them to undagger them, but Niklaus admitted to Elijah when Elijah attempted to kill him that it wasn't true and that Klaus would take Elijah to them.

In Season 2, Rose stated, "Elijah may be dead, but this isn't over. The Originals, they'll come for her, they have to. They're doing it for him. Klaus". This shows that she was not aware that Original vampires cannot be killed by normal wood, nor that most of them had already been "killed" by Niklaus.

Both Klaus in the novels and on the TV series takes a significant interest in Stefan Salvatore. Although on the TV series, Klaus saw Stefan as a brother and a best friend/companion after they bonded in Chicago in the 1920s, while in the books, Klaus was intrigued with Stefan due to Katherine's constant mentioning of him (and Damon) after Katherine fled Germany after faking her death and reuniting with him.

The family is of Norwegian descent; Elijah said that witches are called "häxa" where his mother comes from, and it was shown during Wheel Inside the Wheel that Esther approached her sister for magical help in conceiving a child in the Kingdom of Norway in 972 A.D.

Many of the Mikaelsons have been said to have very quick tempers, especially Klaus, Kol, Rebekah, and Mikael. While Kol and Rebekah likely inherited this trait from their father, Klaus' anger problems are presumed to have stemmed from his werewolf nature.

All of the Mikaelson brothers have demonstrated a certain gesture by raising both their arms up to their sides as a sign of power. Fans have dubbed this gesture The Mikaelson Arm Raise.